Archive January 2010

Satellite imagery maps Haiti’s sociopolitical landscape Daniel Collins Jan 16

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A key factor in the magnitude of the disaster the followed the earthquake in Haiti last week, and will continue to follow for weeks or months, was the society’s high vulnerability and low resilience. A key factor is this is poor governance.

We are probably aware of the political turmoil that rolls through Haiti from time to time – the 2004 rebellion, for example. There is no standing army, a weak police force, and corruption is taken for granted.

But we can also get a sense of Haiti’s sociopolitical institutions from satellite imagery, and make comparisons with its neighbour the Dominican Republic.

Go to Google Earth and follow the Haiti-Dominican Republic border from coast to coast. You’ll see tangible differences in land management practices and in urban planning.

Haiti is less forested, and its remaining forest seems to be there just because it hasn’t yet been cleared. Coherent agricultural units are smaller. Urban units are smaller. Dominican Republic land users appear to preferentially avoid farming streams or rivers, probably reflecting the use of farm machinery or erosion control. Light splotches in the cleared Haitian portion of second image are possibly the remnants of fires used in the course of the clearance. In each of these images, Haiti is to the left of yellow line.

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Water news haikus no. 8 Daniel Collins Jan 15

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How could I forget
Events distilled like sake
Yes, haikus are back

Science

Disrupted monsoon
A model where mountains rule
Not Tibet plateau

In the great north lakes
Evap now trumps precip in
Lake level changes

New Zealand

Shortfalls of water
Enter garden restrictions
Zero to xeri

International

How not to write news
Alternet’s coverage error
Panned by blog critics

Plummeting lake height
Yields fewer fish, more migrants
Next stop: Chad dust bowl

Epic fight for wealth
Water book tracks history
You are what you read

Equipment destroyed
As punishment, vandals must
Risk crocs for water

Haiti earthquake Daniel Collins Jan 14

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The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that Haiti on Tuesday is estimated to have killed more than 100,000 people. With the collapse of hospitals and impoverished emergency services, fatalities will continue to mount.

In disasters like this, unless you have particular expertise in disaster response, donating to the Red Cross is the best thing you can do. Either NZ Red Cross or, probably better, the American Red Cross.

Disasters like this can be broken down into several phases.

Phase 1 – The initial earthquake and aftershock levels buildings, immediately killing and injuring a huge number of people. Infrastructure such as power or water supplies are damaged or destroyed, as are service providers such as hospitals and security.

Phase 2. Search and rescue begins immediately, at least by the locals. Fatalities continue as the injured are unable to get necessary treatment. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas; its vulnerability is high and resilience extremely low. While the country remains in shock, international attention starts to bring disaster relief, which is best aimed at treating the injured and supplying food and water. Since this is Haiti, international aid will also come in the form of security. Low-level crime begins, though it will be tempered by culture and available resources to loot.

Phase 3. Search and rescue is now supported by international teams. Most of those injured during phase 1 have either died or are stable. Public health will begin to be a problem due to the many corpses. Corpse removal and mass burial begins. International aid subsides a little, with the balance shifting to restoring life-support services (power and water). Low-level crime continues, but given the willingness for the international community to send security personnel to Haiti, it will not get out of hand. The initial shock will transition into a variety of other emotions, ranging from fatalism and depression to courage. The flow of international concern will play a significant role here.

Phase 4. Post-disaster reconstruction. Haiti has no capacity for this, so it will again be supported by international aid. Corpse removal continues. Public health is still a concern. Attention will spread from life-supporting services to longer-term services: rebuilding hospitals, roads, schools. While international donations will have fallen off, they are still extremely valuable. Used wisely, they can be administered in ways that reduce the impacts of “the next one” – earthquake resistant hospital buildings at the top of the list. Aid will now be directed at rebuilding what little economic and agricultural activities Haiti can sustain.

For continuing coverage, as well as historical articles that can provide a social context for the disaster, see the New York Times’ Haiti archive.

For footage and images of Haiti between phase 1 and phase 2, see BBC and NYT.

For on-going collation of facts, visit Wikipedia.

For a basic description of Haiti’s geological setting, visit Highly Allochthonous.

My thoughts go out to those affected.

Update 14/1/10: I was remiss not to mention shelter. Phase 1: In this size of earthquake, many people would have lost their homes, and as the aftershocks roll on, survivors would have gathered important resources and found places to sleep – perhaps makeshift, perhaps in less-than-ideal locations. Phase 2: International aid brings in tents, tarps and blankets. If fitting, a tent city may emerge in an open space, though I imagine people in Haiti will just continue to retrofit what they have. Phase 4: Rebuilding begins, even before all debris is removed. While most buildings will look as they were before the earthquake, I expect the magnitude of the impacts this time will encourage rebuilding with more resistant structures for the more important functions (e.g., hospitals, government).

Water trend spotting for 2010 Daniel Collins Jan 12

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World marketing communications brand, JMT, released a ‘100 Things to Watch in 2010′ list at the end of last year. Not hydrological trends but cultural, and geared towards affluent and Western nations. Water made an appearance in seven of them, explicitly or implicitly:

Water Footprint Tracking

2009 wasn’t a bad year for this, but 2010 will probably be even better. Tony Allen, the mind behind the ‘virtual water’ concept has a book out this year on that very topic – I assume and hope his audience is the general public. I wonder if ‘virtual water’ will become a catch phrase in North America or Europe. I think NZ will cotton on too, but ever so reluctantly. The Royal Society of NZ released a backgrounder last year, to which I contributed but it was really the work of Brent Clothier. It didn’t seem to make a hit in government; the Ministry for the Environment isn’t thinking about it – tsk tsk. And yet last year the Listener cited Clothier as the #4 name in environmental moving-and-shaking – one of the few scientists to get recognition.

Recycling Gray Water

This has also started getting momentum, at least in the US. The water shortages in California will no doubt help. I see last year’s arrival of Chance of Rain as another indicator that urban garden water use is making people think; CA has quite a few water blogs now, probably the best represented US state. Colorado’s easing of restrictions of rain barrels is another indicator of more laissez faire residential hydrology. WorldChanging also notes a trend in urban water use, ostensibly in the context of adapting to climate change.

The Waterless Washing Machine

Now this is a new one for me. I would have thought it a European innovation, but no. The nearly waterless washing machine uses nylon beads to clean fabric. Interesting. While it’ll hit the markets this year, I expect the price tag to be prohibitively high for much uptake. Besides, dual-flush toilets are still a novelty in the US compared with NZ, so I don’t really think they’re in tune with house-hold water-use efficiency quite yet. Put a (higher) price tag on water, and that’ll change.

Return of the Water Fountain

Another interesting one, and rather ironic given the suite of water-saving trends in the list. I imagine the reason stems from a need for more public art and a drive to get back to ‘nature’. What would be really nice is if the fountains were rain water- or gray water-driven.

Greening the Palate

Now this wasn’t meant to be about water, at least not 100%, but water does play a big role in what we eat (see water footprinting above). I expect more people to buy products according to a suite of environmental indicators. The challenge, as I see it, is to develop indicators that are both tangible for the consumer and meaningful for the environment. A gripe I have with virtual water is that it is not as meaningful for environmental sustainability as it ought to be. A further challenge is to develop them fast, before consumers lock themselves into a sub-optimal system.

Green Retrofits

Again, not 100% about water. Energy and materials are probably the main focus, but water-use efficiency and storage will be a factor in affluent, semi-arid regions. Rain barrels, gray water reuse, dual flush toilets. Western Europe is ahead of the US on this one, but the US is catching up.

Dry Shampoo

I see a market for this – waterless shampoo. And not just for business travellers – for anyone who is strict about keeping up appearances. It’s not so much about water conservation though. And the ironic thing is, if we didn’t use traditional shampoos religiously, we probably wouldn’t need shampoo as much, though we would need water.

Nor-westers and apricot brandy Daniel Collins Jan 09

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I just returned from an important excursion north to Woodend this morning. I was running out of apricot brandy, a crucial ingredient for periodistas. Apparently the Kiwi palate hasn’t acquired a taste, so liquor stores don’t stock it, let alone know it exists. The Prenzel store had one last bottle.

And as I drove there and back, I crossed the Waimakariri River. It was flowing high and muddy. It’s blowing a nor’wester at the moment, which for the uninitiated means warm winds that have had their moisture stripped from them by the Southern Alps. This moisture, originally from the Tasman Sea, fell as rain 100-200 km west, in the headwaters of Canterbury’s rivers, and is the reason the Waimak is running high and muddy.

Even though it may be hot and sunny well east of the main divide, its rivers can still flood. ECan has issued a flood warning for the Waitaki and Rangitata Rivers. And from the Ecan website:

“For the third time this week, as a result of heavy thundery rain along the Main Divide, the major alpine rivers of Canterbury will be flowing bank to bank. People are advised to stay clear of the beds of the Waiau, Hurunui, Waimakariri and Rakaia rivers Sunday through Monday morning.”

This kind of weather is more conducive for mojitos than periodistas, but if you want the recipe: 3 parts dark rum, 1 part triple sec, 1 part apricot brandy, 1 part lime juice, and 1 part basic syrup; iced and strained into a cocktail glass; optional garnish of lemon or lime peel.

Update: Winds in Christchurch seem to be a bit more nor-easterly, but the isobars over the South Island are as crooked as the Büyük Menderes River.

NZ beaches: Contaminated as Daniel Collins Jan 08

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“Due to water pollution the public are warned against swimming, fishing and taking shellfish in this vicinity.”

So say health warnings on many of our beaches. Almost a third of our beaches, lakes and rivers were deemed unsafe by MfE during the 08-09 summer, according to a Consumer NZ report covered by NZ Herald.

I’d tell you more if I were willing to pay for the report, but no dice I’m afraid.

Russell Norman weighs in, decrying the worsening state of our environment. On the other hand, an environmental scientist at the Manukau City Council says some sites are improving, and that you should never expect a pristine urban beach.

I wonder if an MfE representative was invited to comment, or a civil and environmental engineering professor.

Degraded urban beach water quality is a side-effect of, mainly, sewerage treatment and localised disposal. Affluent cities can improve water quality by way of ocean outfalls, longer ocean outfalls, secondary treatment, tertiary treatment, or the elimination of combined sewer overflow systems.

But these aren’t cheap options, and there is no free lunch. If we want cleaner beaches near cities, we will have to pay.